Managing Multiple Data Processing Systems Using Existing Heterogeneous Systems Management Software

1. A computer system complex, comprising: a plurality of managed computer systems; a plurality of system management applications residing in respective systems of said computer system complex, each of said plurality of system management applications performing system management functions for a respective plurality of said managed computer systems; wherein a first system management application of said plurality of system management applications is different from a second system management application of said plurality of management applications; wherein said first system management application performs a first set of management functions for a first subset of said plurality of managed computer systems, and said second management application performs said first set of management functions for a second subset of said plurality of managed computer systems, said first and second subsets being disjoint; a consolidation management application residing in a first computer system of said computer complex, said consolidation management application generating a common user interface for each of said plurality of system management applications; wherein each of said plurality of system management applications is a stand-alone application which performs its respective set of system management functions independently of said consolidation management application; and a respective consolidation adapter corresponding to each of said plurality of system management applications, said respective consolidation adapter residing in a respective computer system in which a corresponding system management application resides, said consolidation adapter providing a communication interface between said consolidation management application and said corresponding system management application, said consolidation adapter receiving system management function requests in a common format generated by said consolidation management application, and invoking said requests in the respective corresponding system management application in a format compatible with the corresponding system management application; wherein said common user interface generated by said consolidation management application includes at least some user requests causing system management function requests in said common format to be transmitted concurrently to said first and said second system management applications, and to consolidate responses received from said first and said second system management applications for presentation to a user.

2. The computer system complex of claim 1 , wherein said consolidation management application generates a common user interface for a core set of management functions in each of said plurality of system management applications, said core set being a subset of said first set of management functions, said first set of management functions including at least one management function not included in said core set.

3. The computer system complex of claim 1 , wherein said system management function requests in a common format generated by said consolidation management application are requests formatted according to Web Services Definition Language (WSDL).

4. The computer system complex of claim 1 , wherein said consolidation management application generates said common user interface as a web server in the form of an interactive web interface accessible by a web browser.

5. The computer system complex of claim 1 , wherein each said plurality of system management application comprises a respective user interface for receiving commands from a user and presenting responses to a user independently of said consolidation management application.

6. A distributed computer program product for managing a plurality of computer systems in a computer system complex, comprising: a plurality of processor-executable instructions recorded on a non-transitory tangible computer-readable recording media, said instructions, when executed by multiple computer processors in respective different computers systems of said computer system complex, cause the respective different computers systems to perform the steps of: via a consolidation management application, generating a common user interface for a plurality of different system management applications, each system management application of said plurality of different system management applications residing in a respective computer system of said computer system complex and performing system management functions independently of said distributed program product for a respective subset of computer systems of said computer system complex, each said respective subset of computer systems comprising a plurality of computer systems of said computer system complex; via a consolidation adapter, transmitting system management function requests received through said common user interface to said plurality of different system management applications using a common request format; translating said system management function requests in said common request format to invoke said system management function requests in the plurality of system management applications in a format compatible with a respective system management application, said translating step being performed in a respective local system on which each of said different system management application resides; and consolidating responses received from multiple ones of said different system management applications for presentation to a user in said common user interface; wherein said common user interface generated by said distributed computer program product includes at least some system management function requests in said common request format to be transmitted concurrently to multiple ones of said plurality of different system management applications, and to consolidate responses received from said multiple ones of said plurality of different system management applications for presentation to the user.

7. The distributed computer program product of claim 6 , wherein said common request format comprises Web Services Definition Language (WSDL).

8. The distributed computer program product of claim 6 , wherein said common user interface generated by said generating step comprises an interactive web interface accessible by a web browser.

9. The distributed computer program product of claim 6 , wherein each said plurality of different system management applications comprises a respective user interface for receiving commands from the user and presenting responses to the user independently of said distributed computer program product.